CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch will continue to drive the No. 8 Chevrolet with Richard Childress Racing through the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, he and RCR announced Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The two-time Cup Series champion has piloted the No. 8 car since 2023, collecting three wins, 16 top fives and 31 top 10s in 84 starts since departing Joe Gibbs Racing after a 15-year stint. Team president Mike Verlander confirmed the team was picking up the option on Busch’s contract through 2026.
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Announcing the news were team owner Richard Childress and Busch, both of whom remain encouraged by recent changes within the organization in efforts to snap what is currently a 69-race winless streak for Busch and the No. 8 team.
“This has extended our contract out another year, and we’re really excited,” Childress said. “You know, Kyle has been great to work with. Everybody had questions going in. I love a driver that (doesn’t) like to lose, and we’ve worked hard. We’ve got some exciting things coming up.
“He and I are both alike in one area that we don’t like to lose; we want to win races. I still think that Kyle will win him a championship, and we want it to happen at RCR and that’s our plans. We got a lot of new things coming. This car is a lot different. It’s so engineer-driven that we’re stepping our engineering up more, and I’m excited about the future.”
Winless since scoring three wins in the first 16 races of 2023, Busch has played an instrumental role in aiding RCR’s offseason retooling. Between the 2024 and 2025 campaigns came the promotion of Verlander to president of the company after he previously held the same role at Kyle Busch Motorsports and served as executive vice president at Stewart-Haas Racing. Other moves included Torrey Galida’s ascension from president to vice chairman, along with the addition of John Klausmeier as technical director and Richard Boswell as crew chief of the No. 3 team with driver Austin Dillon.
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That RCR picked up the option on Busch’s career affirms its commitment to Busch and his ability to continue to drive the organization forward.
“I give a lot of credit to Richard and him believing in me and giving me the opportunity to be able to come over here and have a chance to drive his car,” Busch said. “So for me, rewarding him with that and having the success on the race track is paramount. Being able to continue on when I first joined, I feel like there were some things that we were doing within the rules at that time that got us some extra speed, and then, there was definitely some things that came down that they didn’t like us doing.
“So that’s sort of where we’ve lost a little bit if people are wondering, why have we not been able to win like we did in the first 16 races. It’s just a matter of being able to continue to work with the people that are there. It’s a great culture. I enjoy working there. I fit in well there. They enjoy having me there.”
Part of that culture is working alongside teammate Dillon, a past winner of the Coca-Cola 600 and Daytona 500.
“Austin’s been a fantastic teammate,” Busch said. “His demeanor and the way that we’re able to work together, we talk a lot about the same things and describe it in much of the same fashions. He’s been a really good resource to rely on as well. So it’s good to have a teammate factor that helps keep you there.”
With the organizational changes have come improvements for Dillon and the No. 3 team as well. In his 12th season of driving for RCR, his grandfather’s team, Dillon currently maintains an 18.4 average finish, over four positions better than his 2024 campaign. Working alongside a multi-time Cup champ like Busch has been a boon for Dillon.
“I feel like he (Busch) gives you what you expect, which is that he’s a hard worker,” Dillon said Friday. “He’s fiery. He wants the best for the cars. He wants to get to Victory Lane constantly and will push everyone to figure out how to make that happen, even himself on the track.
“But as far as being in the meetings with him after practice and on Mondays and the debriefs, he’s very helpful. He asks good questions at the right time about what your car is doing, and he provides information that you can make your car better off of. So from that standpoint, you couldn’t ask for a more helpful teammate when it comes to his knowledge of the game and what he is providing from an informational standpoint.”
While Busch’s victories have slowed, there remains an obvious optimism within Busch as he remains the pilot of the No. 8 Chevrolet.
“We have certainly had our battles,” Busch said. “It’s been fun yet challenging. Definitely isn’t easy. This sport is very, very tough, very, very close and challenging in being able to score those wins and compete for those each and every week. And we know those areas in which we can improve behind the wheel, on pit road, in the engineering, all of the above. So this is just the pinnacle of that and hope to continue to build on our successes that we’ve been working towards for the last two years.”
Busch is the 2018 winner of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. The 2025 edition begins Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on Prime Video, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.